Developer Pocketpair announced the open-world survival crafting game, Palworld, will leave Early Access and launch in 2026 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.
The game first released in Early Access in January 2024 for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, and for the PlayStation 5 in September 2024.
“While we have a lot of ideas for where we want to take Palworld, we also need to start thinking about Palworld 1.0,” said Pocketpair communications director and publishing manager Bucky. “Beyond just adding new content, there’s a lot of cleanup that needs to be done before Palworld can exit Early Access. It’s no secret that Palworld has a lot of quirks and jank, and we want to take the time to properly address those before releasing the game. With that in mind, we plan to start that cleanup this year. Our goal is to ultimately release Palworld next year, in 2026, and we think taking the time now to fix those problems will ultimately lead to a better game.
“So, what does this mean? It means that things will be a little quiet from us for the rest of this year. It also means our winter update won’t be as big as [the] February [update] was. We hope our players understand that we’re taking this extra time to improve the game overall. Now, that said, it doesn’t mean there will be no updates, but we still do have a few surprises planned for our winter update this year.
“We just want to be transparent about where we’re headed and the development of Palworld going forward. Development of Palworld is not slowing down or scaling back, quite the opposite. Palworld 1.0 will be a major milestone for us, and we have a truly massive amount of content planned for the 1.0 update. Rather than rushing it, we believe that laying the right foundation now will lead to a better game in the end. We’re really excited about this, and we hope our fans will be really excited about this too. We plan to share some sneak peeks about Palworld 1.0 in the very near future.”
View the Palworld 1.0 video from the developers below:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
Full Article – https://www.vgchartz.com/article/465744/palworld-to-leave-early-access-in-2026/
